Ideation:
It could take hours, days, or even months to make your own scarf, hat, or sweater! You will only be as good as your technique. Well… as an amateur knitter, I always thought to myself — who else does this in the dorm/hall/community? Am I the only one? When I was hosting anime night a couple of residents saw me knitting my scarf and expressed interest. Could it be? I wasn’t alone?!
To test this out I needed to have an event dedicated to knitting — to help sniff out all the knitters out there! But it’s not that simple — it requires proper advertising, equipment, and lots of encouragement.
When I was growing up there was always this stigma around knitting, as if it was a terrible thing that only old people would do… and not in a good way. So I wanted to make sure that people who attended felt welcome and not judged!
The overall list of what we needed to plan:
- Needed to have Knitting Needles
- A cozy place to chill out and knit!
- Some cookies
- Needed to have Yarn — lots of yarn
- Crochet hook (for those who wanted to expand)
- PEOPLE!
Preparation
I put in an order through Amazon and ordered 25 balls of yarn. Haha! I got a couple in each color. While I was there I ordered 20 pairs of knitting needles and 5 crochet hooks. The few people I knew loved Lion Brand Yarn. So… that’s what I got! I also ordered a couple of these sets: Knitting Needles and one set of Crochet hooks. We had Amazon Prime — so I wasn’t too worried. But if one of these were missing (especially the yarn) then we wouldn’t have an event so we had to make sure the order was processed and delivered on time.
Location/Venue:
Luckily enough, we could keep the event local, and host the event in our “After Hours.” Afterhours, as iterated in the past, and will be in the future, blog posts, is a safe-haven of everything artistic. The room is equipped with comfortable furniture and 2 huge bean bags.
Supplies:
- Lion Brand Yarn (Or any brand yarn)
- Knitting Needles x 4
- Crochet hooks x 2
- Cookies! I ordered these through Dining Services (ran by University Housing), but you could also get them from Amazon too!
Advertising:
- Fliers! Paper fliers for each floor and bulletin boards in various lounges. The fliers had the following information:
Title: Knitting Circle
Date Day MM/DD/
Location
Time
“Come join your housefellow for some fun knitting and cookies!”
We make amazing flyers with Canva! Here is an article talking about all the different effective advertisements we do to make our events super successful. Check it out!
- Word-of-mouth
- Remember that bit about the stigma? Yeah — well, I went to talk to a couple of people on each floor and asked them if they were interested in learning — and if they would find someone else who would also knit as well. Bringing a friend with you allows you to have a support system to help you get through your nerves and cut through social stigma.
Research/Prep Items:
No research 🙂
Just needed to set everything out nicely on the day of the event.
Execution:
I put a beautiful array of yarn spread out on the main table. This helped people pick a ball and start knitting or crocheting. Anyone new to knitting would be paired with someone who knows at least one stitch. People working on a specific project — scarf, hat, sweater – could also congregate in a little circle. Shortly, the room was packed!! There were about 14 residents that came by, made an attempt, had a cookie, or just hung out. We had one resident explain how she would knit her own winter mittens, another say how they knitted to donate knitting goods to premature babies (to keep them warm), and one resident that said that she only knows one stitch, but always gifts out her knitting goods.
Knitting can be fun (as I write here)! You have to give it a chance, and give people some light encouragement to share their true colors and passions!
Simply Prepared 